Chapter 6 – Let’s Reform the Barony with the Newly-Formed Domestic Affairs Team!
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Imperial Calendar, Year 259 – Moon of the Pearl (June)
The Erwin family is hiring new retainers.
Application Requirements: Healthy, above 15 Years old, and the ability to read, write, and do simple calculations.
Work Description: Food management including account keeping, tax collection, etc.
Pay: 15 Silver per month.
Holidays: Upon agreement
Anyone fulfilling the requirement will receive an employment examination, regardless of race or gender.
※ Oni are excluded from taking the exam!
I had decided to spread such a notification across the Barony. As for the notification itself, I finally obtained permission a little while ago after having persuaded Malida with my hip work. Thanks to that, my back was aching a bit right now, but I had Irena and Lichere massage it while Malida was sleeping peacefully next to me.
“Still, Albert-sama, you are not going to employ oni as retainers according to the notification, right?”
While enjoying the softness of their butts with my hands, I answered Irena, “Correct. I decided to disallow the oni, who are completely unsuited to the work of civil officials, to apply from the get-go. This has nothing to do with discrimination. It’s a classification. The Erwin family doesn’t have the leeway to hire a combat race as civil officials.”
“Ah, I see. So it’s a recruitment for retainers who will serve as civil officials. The oni have been demonstrating an unequaled might in combat, but when it comes to administrative duties…” Irena hesitated to say the rest, but because it was a well-known fact that muscleheads can’t manage a territory, there’s no need for her to hold back here.
If the oni had hired humans as civil officials from the time when they received the territory, this mess with the domestic affairs and the taxes embezzlement by the village chiefs likely wouldn’t have occurred in the first place.
“However, although I believe that quite a few people can read and write, it seems like the majority of people cannot calculate. I cannot do it either. Though I have been getting Irena-san to teach me how to write most recently.”
Lichere, who had her butt massaged in exchange for massaging my waist, voiced her worry that the number of applicants could be low.
“You’re right. That’s why I set the pay higher than what you can earn at a common merchant’s place. Trade dealers are coming and going at the castle town, so there should be quite a few people capable of calculating around. Besides, if there are some promising guys among the village chiefs’ younger sons, I plan to invite them to serve at the castle. So I believe quite a few people will gather for the exam.”
“The younger sons of the village chiefs, huh? Oh, I get it. You will work them hard as civil officials while flaunting a career in the castle in front of them. And at the same time, you intend to use them as hostages, if necessary. Nothing less of you, Albert-sama. This is the way a heinous person would handle it.”
Lichere exhibited her natural, keen insight and spelled out what I was aiming for. When I got to know her in Alexa, Lichere didn’t have much of an education, but just her imaginative power seems to be in a league of its own. She can come up with conjectures based on fragmentary knowledge, and those conjectures of hers tend to be often on point.
Right now I’m having her manage the intelligence agency founded by me while also making her serve Malida as attendant. Whenever she reports information she obtained through the agency, she will provide me with interesting, differing points of view. Because of her different outlook on things, I harbor high hopes when it comes to her serving me as an advisor.
“Lichere, that’s a secret. Make sure to not mention it anywhere outside this room. Irena, you keep it to yourself as well, please.”
“O-Okay. So it’s a notification coming with such background circumstances, huh?”
“Lichere is pretty perceptive, so she grasped it quickly, but yes, that’s how it is. The recruitment notification also aims at gathering hostages from the village chiefs, who are disturbing elements inside the Barony, by using their son’s career as bait. Of course, I fully intend to promote those who do outstandingly at their job. However, combat occupations are being monopolized by the oni, so it’ll be a career within a new framework related to territorial administration.”
“I understand… If it’s posts that haven’t existed at all so far, it won’t lead to disputes over jurisdictions with the oni. As expected of you, Albert-sama.”
At present, Milevis, Irena, and I are the only civil officials of the Erwin family. Everyone else belongs to a combat race that only cares about battle.
“Now then, tomorrow is going to be busy with us laying the groundwork in regards to the village chiefs and preparing the proclamation, so let’s go to sleep.”
“Oh my, that’s out of the question. You’re not allowed to only be affectionate with Malida-sama and then go sleep while leaving Irena-san and me unattended,” Lichere coaxed seductively close to my ear.
Her soft tits pushed against my back.
“If you go this far, I guess I have no choice but to oblige, huh? My back feels much better now too, so should I try my hip work on you as well?”
“Albert-sama…something like that isn’t… Ah! Albert-sama!?”
“It looks like this is going to become another long night. I love such nights, however.”
For the time being, since they were begging for it, I decided to satisfy the two cute lovers of my wife with my hip work.
Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye, quickly leading up to the examination day today.
Around 80 people, who fulfilled the conditions, had applied. Because we offered a bigger salary than average, quite a few of the applicants were employees of stores and mercantile houses. On top of that I’ve been visiting the village chiefs and personally encouraging them, many of their younger sons applied as well.
Given that the farm villages in the Barony were relatively prosperous and had been governing themselves thanks to the lord’s unreliability, they were quite passionate about the education of their children. Let alone reading and writing, many of those sons had also learned how to calculate, and some even had experience in martial arts. But, compared to the oni, their level in martial arts was like child play.
Still, I could see a few capable-looking guys who would be at least able to defend a castle.
Only sending the third sons and younger was a measure to keep the first and second son as reserve to make one of them inherit the seat of the family head in due time. When it came to the younger sons, it was quite likely that most of them would finish their life at home without ever being given a new pioneer village, unless they hailed from a fairly rich village chief family.
They are considered as relatively low priority in their families for being hostages, but they will be able to exercise an influence on their own families if they make a career at the Erwin family. Since they’d lose their job if their family caused a revolt, you can expect them to frantically do everything to deter such a situation from happening.
Without knowing of my ulterior motives, the applicants all looked nervous and tense before the exam. The employment test they’d take any moment now was designed by Irena. It consisted of more than 80 problems in total.
We decided to have those who passed the exam get an interview with me. Because we don’t have any capacity to train people right now, I’d like the newcomers to be usable from the get-go. Milevis had already begged me in tears to send some help his way.
Either way, since I’d be troubled if Milevis died from overwork, Irena and I have been recently helping him with the accounting lists and books after doing our regular work. Personally, I’d love to have more time to make out with my wife and her lovers, seeing how I’ve finally managed to become the husband of a noble. For this reason, I want to avoid doing overtime as much as possible.
When we later asked the applicants who had an interview with me, they all said I was scary since my eyes were glowing with an abnormal light.
Ugh, that wasn’t my intention at all, so I felt sorry about scaring them.
Anyway, all of this is the fault of generations of muscle-headed lords of the Erwin family continuing to be imbeciles in regards to domestic affairs!
We decided to hire the 50 people who passed the exam and weathered through my unconscious pressure. The newly hired human civil officials were still low in number with 50, but they were the elites who overflowed with motivation.
It also meant that the personnel expenses would rise once again, but this was a necessary investment for the Erwin family’s growth and not a place to show some weird drive towards austerity. I entrusted the creation of the merchants’ income accounting books and the castle town’s census to those 50 civil officials as Milevis had cried that it’d take him half a year to finish official ledgers.
The officials, who originally worked for merchants or hailed from village chief families, reacted like starved wolves when baited with promotions, exhibited a ridiculous determination to get the work entrusted to them done, and finished all of it within a month.
Yeah, they’re seriously outstanding.
The account books were also written in the format I had asked them to use. They were extremely easy to read and understand.
According to the census the civil officials finished with a joint effort, 5236 people lived in Castle Ashley’s town. I just looked it up noncommittally, but when it comes to territories with populations above 5,000 residents, it’s mostly land owned by Count families in Elancia.
The peerage granted to the the family head Malida by the demon king was that of a 『Baroness』 which is the second lowest noble rank in the empire.
Either way, this allowed me to reaffirm that a fief with intersecting trade routes, agriculture-rich land, and abundance of water, and a big population had been given to the Erwin family, a low-ranking noble family completely unsuited for such a wealthy territory.
Because a big population directly correlated with a lot of tax revenue, I believe the tax income from this bountiful land prevented the Erwin family from going bankrupt, even though they continued to mess up the domestic affairs. Now that we had a grasp on the castle town’s population thanks to the civil officials’ strenuous effort, we were also able to precisely calculate how long the castle would hold out in case of a siege with the emergency rations stored in the storehouses.
We learned that this castle would be able to endure a siege for 50 days at most. This was a number based on the idea of all castle town residents hiding in the castle and eating two meals a day.
If only the retainers of the Erwin family secluded themselves in the castle, we’d have enough leeway to hold out several years.
Although we put the messy storehouses in order a while back, it looked like we still had big stockpiles of emergency rations. Well, the major reason for the rations accumulating like this could be traced back to the Erwin family not having been allowed to participate in any battle over the last two years as an after-effect of Malida having almost killed her fiancé.
Should a large-scale war with Alexa break out, it’s quite possible that we will be besieged by a large army in no time. Therefore, it’d be better for us to have as many emergency rations as feasible. However, we don’t need the preserved food, which the cooks of the castle made with utmost effort, to the extent that we’d even keep rotten stuff. Besides, it’s soon time to harvest the wheat.
Because Milevis and Irena should have a tight grip on the storehouses’ management from now on, it should be possible to avoid them becoming cluttered messes again.
The inventory control of the storehouses had become pretty decent, but the grasp on the precise tax revenue was still unclear as it was completely unknown how much grain the farm villages would harvest.
I suppose our priority from now on will be to grasp the population and amount of harvested grain for each farm village. Our officials have increased in numbers too, so I think we’ll run land surveys… Though the village chiefs will likely hate this change.
By the way, let me give you a rough presentation of the taxes collected by the Erwin family at present:
- Land rent ― tax taken for the farmland cultivated by a farmer. It’s usually collected in grain.
- Poll tax ― tax collected from all residents of the fief.
- Entry tax ― tax paid if you want to enter the castle town.
- Service facility fee ― tax that you have to pay if you use facilities such as water mills for grinding flour, bread ovens, grape presses, and so on.
- Inheritance tax ― tax applicable in case a child inherits land and assets from its parents.
- Land sale tax ― tax applicable if a farmer sells land to someone else.
- Slave labor exemption tax ― tax for the sake of receiving an exemption of slave labor which is levied by the lord.
- Sales tax ― tax applied on a merchant’s proceeds.
- Daily necessities tax ― tax that will be applied on daily necessities like salt, firewood, and so on.
Those are the nine types of taxes which the Erwin family collects.
Only the land rent and poll tax of the farm villages are paid in natural products. Most other taxes are covered with money. Collecting a new tax and changing the tax rates can be arbitrarily decided by the lord, but since it’d turn into a problem if the people rose because the taxes were raised too high, a lord couldn’t hike up the tax rate just because they want more money.
Peace in the Erwin Barony could be maintained by the oni’s overwhelming might in combat, but since you never know what might happen in this world, I’d like to go with options as safe as possible.
By the way, the musclehead clan kicked up a fuss over military drill early in the morning, so I had them go hunting wild animals in the outskirts. I decided that it’d be best for them to earn their own food money, if they aren’t good for anything but battle anyway.
The expenses for the military drills they want to do every day have to be earned as well, so I’ll get them to earn those expenses by selling the pelts and meat of the animals they brought down. I’ve decided to prohibit all training for three days if they come back with absolutely no spoils, so I think they could actually use their heads for a bit.
If the matchless combat maniac of a lord continues with the inability to run the domestic affairs, resulting in the territorial management being shaky, she won’t be able to exhibit the full extent of her combat prowess either. That’s why domestic affairs matter. And the money for carrying out the domestic administration is basically provided by the tax revenue of the fief.
As far as I can see, Ashley Barony has the potential to get a lot more tax revenue. Moreover, if the tax revenue goes up, so does the number of soldiers that can be fed. And if the number of soldiers increases, so does the possibility to gain new territory while achieving military exploits.
Battles will be mostly carried by the oni, a peerless combat race, with their matriarch Malida leading them. I plan to contribute to their efforts through domestic affairs, foreign affairs, and strategies so that the oni can achieve the best possible military outcomes. I’ll allow my wife to rise through the ranks of nobility, make out with her and her lovers, and enjoy a relaxed harem life.
This is another reason why I’m working diligently and hard today, grappling with all the lists and books.
“Albert-sama, how about you take a little break? You have been working since the morning.”
Irena, who had been sorting documents next to me, brought her body close.
A break to take a breather, huh? Sure, I feel like I’ve been doing my best today. I guess I’ll unwind for a bit.
“Alright. It’d be a huge help if you could massage the place that has become somewhat hard.”
“Very well. This place here is incredibly hard――wow, it’s very stiff.”
“Yeah, please take care of it.”
Afterwards I enjoyed my break time with Irena.
■
Imperial Calendar, Year 259 – Moon of the Ruby (July)
Now then, various tasks have started to make progress. Let’s go to the office and get some work done today.
But, that bright, motivated mood of mine plummeted to the ground past noon. I felt like wanting to punch the me from this morning, who’d gone around, sleep-talking about doing his best at work and so on.
The harvest of the ripe wheat had finished. Now a queue of wagons crammed with wheat and other crops from the various farm villages was visible in the courtyard, which I could see through the window of my office. All of them were waiting to unload their grain in our storehouses as tax payment.
It’s currently July. It’s the season of provisions as the residents pay their taxes with food stuff. In a simulation game this would be the time when you’d feel like going on a campaign after the food-based numbers increased on their own accord.
Our Barony didn’t accept money as tax payment for the land rent and poll tax of farm villages. They could only pay with wheat, barley, and various other food products. Other taxes were collected as goods, depending on their use, or could be paid with money.
The reason why our Barony put such an emphasis on collecting the taxes from the farm villages as foodstuff was to be found in its desire to stock provisions to be used for wars or sieges. Therefore, this period of time was one of the two times in the year when the civil officials and I were busy. The officials were darting around inside the office right now.
“Lord Alrbert! It’s terrible! We have more complaints from the village chiefs who came to pay their taxes. They say they cannot agree with the measurement results and have been demanding to bring the one in charge.”
Starting with this year, I had decided that our tax collectors would measure the foodstuff intended as taxes with the counterweights and containers circulated as officially approved measurement tools of the Erwin family. I had taken care of spreading the information about the change to the tax collection method, but as expected, claimers exist in this world as well.
The reason why all my motivation went down the drain stemmed from me having to deal with these people since morning.
“Got, I’ll be there right away. It’s because the people in charge on our side have been stating that they’ll only approve of measurements with the officially recognized measurements tools. Given that their usual bartering to weasel their way in has been thwarted by us, they must be pretty angry.”
Since the planting books haven’t gotten very far yet, the amount of taxes to be paid by each farm village is grounded on the village chief’s assertions. However, thanks to Malida’s edict, the amount of money embezzled by the village chiefs would be disclosed during this year’s tax collection through the measurements carried out by servants of the Erwin family. The embezzled money can be expected to stack up to quite a sum.
We decided that we’ll have them bring in the lacking amount of grain to meet the quota on another day.
If we were to investigate the lacking grain as it’d be identified by the change in our collection method, it was possible that the village chiefs, who are influential authorities in their respective villages, would attack us after growing apart from the Erwin family. Therefore, I decided to not forget about the carrot to complete a nice carrot-and-stick approach.
As soon as they spotted me, the village chiefs, who were gathered in the courtyard, rushed over.
“Albert-dono! We cannot accept the way this year’s tax collection is conducted! We have come here to store the grain which we measured properly in advance. Yet, your people have been telling us that they cannot accept the taxes without re-measuring them! What is this about!?” A senior village chief demanded answers with such a force that it looked as though he was going to grab me any moment.
“Back off! Albert-sama has an announcement to make!” Milevis had been inspecting the measurements in front of the storehouses, but now planted himself in front of me and forced back the village chiefs who tried to draw near.
“Sorry, I’m truly sorry. It’s not that we don’t believe you people. But, our family head Malida-sama has made a proclamation that she won’t accept any tax payments that haven’t been measured with the weights and containers she herself ordered to be used. I told her many times over to put her trust in the work you village chiefs do, but… I mean, look, Malida-sama has that sort of disposition, so…”
You could clearly see, 『Ah, come to think of it, that woman was a musclehead』, appear on their faces as they realized what I meant, before their faces quickly turned pale. They have apparently realized that their whole village might get slaughtered, if they defied the lord’s order.
In reality, I’d never allow her to do something like that in my function as governor, though.
“We also understand the disposition of Her Ladyship’s clan. But, what would be the point in us being village chiefs, if it remains like this!? Until now the Erwin family has constantly shirked its duty of performing the tax collection. As such we were forced to come up with a method on our own at great pains. And yet we’re now being told by Her Ladyship to stop doing it on a whim!? You cannot expect us to simply nod it off like that!”
Yeah, I can totally understand your feelings. I can painfully relate to you guys having been forced to handle everything instead of the incapable ruling clan! You village chiefs have actively taken the assiduous task of collecting the taxes upon yourself on top of being important personnel who will lead the serf soldiers during war times.
But, at the same time you’re also people who could turn your blades against the Erwin family with the help of foreign nations, if we don’t address your complaints.
Therefore, I’ll give them their carrot before their dissatisfaction grows any further.
“I understand. I’m well aware that you have been doing that troublesome work only because you had some side benefits from it. For this reason I have pushed through a new privilege for all of you village chiefs. It’s an exemption from the inheritance tax. Wanting to pass on the money, which you have accumulated through hard work, to your own children is a desire that’s very natural for all parents. Hence, you’ll gain the privilege to not have the property inherited to your descendants taxed in exchange for performing the tax collection for us. Would you be willing to positively consider the matter with the new collection method with this special privilege as a replacement?”
“An exemption from the inheritance tax…”
When children inherit the assets of their parents they must liquidate 30% of their parents’ assets and hand the money to the Erwin family as tax, otherwise their succession of the land and property won’t be approved.
But well, seeing how the Erwin family hasn’t been keeping any decent account books, they’d usually dispatch their retainers to the village chief’s house with a looming inheritance and use the arbitrary amount of money those retainers extorted as inheritance tax. In short, just as they tried to leave the money, which they had earned with hard work, to their children, it’d be extorted by the Erwin family at the time of their death.
The smart village chiefs with financial leeway would have their sons pioneer new farm villages and let them lead those new villages as village chiefs until their death. Currently this seems to be the most popular method to allow their descendants to inherit their legacy. Of course, the parents would need to shoulder the expenses for reclaiming a new farm village. Some folks also made their children reclaim farm villages in such a way as a countermeasure against the Erwin family’s inheritance tax.
But, the development of new farm villages is actually pretty tough as long as you aren’t quite wealthy. Because of that, many village chiefs let their sons succeed by paying the inheritance tax to the oni who came to extort the money.
The carrot given to them on this occasion will spare them from what you could call mugging by the Erwin family.
Accumulating riches by embezzling taxes was mostly done by the village chiefs because they want their sons to inherit as much as possible. As such, an exemption of the inheritance tax would fully satisfy their desire.
“Albert-dono…are you speaking the truth here?”
“Yes, I also have a permit personally written by Malida-sama with me. It says that only the 『village chiefs』, who comply with the measuring through the officially approved measuring tools, will be awarded that privilege.”
“Oohhh! A permit from Her Ladyship!”
The exemption from the inheritance tax at first caused a shock among the village chiefs, but then seemed like it’d be accepted.
The tax money embezzled by the village chiefs widely overweighs the money paid to the Erwin family as inheritance tax, so I’d be more than happy that they choose to go for that carrot.
The village chiefs in the courtyard huddled together and discussed whether to go along with this deal. Once they apparently finished their talks, their representative stepped in front of me.
“Very well, we shall accept the measurements with the officially recognized containers and weights from now on. So please see to the inheritance tax exemption.”
“Ohh, wonderful. You have my thanks. It’s a big help to have you cooperate on this. Oh, right. If there are any problems, please consult me at any time. I’ll try to accommodate you as far as I can. We also have various requests we’d like to make, so I will keep appealing to Malida-sama so that you will be able to participate in the administration of the Erwin family’s fief.”
I clapped the man in front of me on the shoulder.
The claimer village chiefs apparently agreed due to the carrot given to them. And if you win over the influential people, it’ll make it easier to get various things done, so I’ll keep going with a style of doing things in order to create obligations from them.
Also, it’s a digression, but it’s not like the workload will increase if we do the measuring which had been done by the village chiefs thus far. Our civil officials are quite superb and we got plenty of muscle power loitering around in the castle, too. I got the oni, who constantly yell about drills as there’s no war going on right now, to help me with the carrying of goods into the storehouses by telling them that it’d be physical training for them. They even did it on their own initiative. Yep, you heard right, they did it voluntarily. They’re completely different from people who complain about it being unpaid overtime.
I just utilized manpower, which has been playing around during office hours, in an efficient manner. You mustn’t mistake that part.
I do intend proceeding with the decrease of working hours by enforcing the idea of 『Carefully consider things before taking actions』 and an efficient execution of office work. We aren’t some black company which exploits its retainers who our precious assets. Public company Erwin is aiming to be a white company which cherishes its employees as much as it can.
While thinking about all this, I bid farewell from the village chiefs and went to a storehouse together with Milevis. Over there Irena was enthusiastically helping with the measuring of grain.
“Irena, how is the measuring going?”
“I could see there was some confusion in regards to the measuring, but as soon as the goods can be stored, the oni are doing it full of spirit, and we’re taking care of filling out the account books and doing a finally check of the tax payments, so you don’t have to worry.”
The reason why the measurement of tax payment could proceed in such an organized manner stemmed from me having lectured the civil officials, whom we hired this year, in the control of provisions and the way how to record things in account books in advance. Among the officials, Irena’s comprehensive abilities stood out. Because she’s the daughter of a merchant family, her way of handling people is smooth as well, and she even performs very well as my partner. In other words, she’s an all-round talent.
I plan to promote Irena from servant to servant leader during the next audit. The promotion assessment of the people employed as civil officials has been entrusted to me. The new civil officials can only rise up to servant leader at present, but I also plan to reform the positions within the administration. Therefore, it’ll soon be possible for civil officials to make a career as retainers of the Erwin family.
“It looks like it’s proceeding smoothly and that’s what counts.”
“The inventory control hasn’t been posing much of a challenge since you, Albert-sama, have already sorted out the old food, and Milevis-dono prepared an inventory list for us.”
“I see. Please bring the account books to my office after you’ve finished filling them out. I will take another look later.”
“Very well, I shall bring them to you as soon as we are done here.”
If the muscleheads had collected the taxes without any accounting this year as well, they’d have likely been forced to launch several special taxation days in the farm villages because of the debts.
“Still, those messy storehouses from last year have been rearranged in one go and now they’re perfectly clean and sorted. If we arrange account books and ledgers for every field, it should lay the groundwork for carrying out a proper tax collection.”
Milevis was in the middle of creating the documents which would become the basis of the fundamental taxation registers. Seeing the tidy and orderly storehouses, he was moved to tears.
“If we get things done one-by-one, I’m sure the Erwin family’s tax revenue will rise significantly. I might ask you, Milevis, Irena, for unreasonable things in light of that, but please humor me. Besides, I plan to get more civil officials soon, so I’d like to entrust you with teaching those newcomers, too.”
“Of course. It seems like I will be able to make even more of a career if I follow you, Albert-dono, so I will do my best!”
“I also intend to exert all my power for your and Malida-sama’s sake, Albert-sama.”
It was a gradual process, but a new domestic affairs team has been formed in the Erwin family. The establishment of this team was crucial for the Erwin family to aim for even higher peerages. I planned to make the Erwin family a powerhouse by actively winning over not only the oni, but also the talented people living in the barony.
It’s also a question of 『talented personnel』 and 『simple human resources』. If we can gather people with a certain amount of ability, they’ll be useful in one way or another.
In the end, the first measuring and tax collection work of the Erwin family lasted until the end of the month, but we finished it without causing any major confusions.
By the way, the amount the village chiefs had been embezzling by messing with the measuring surpassed 30% of the planned amount of tax payment. I had already expected that they had pilfered quite a sum, but seeing the actual numbers I could only grab my head.
Because the Erwin family would enforce the measurement of the collected food and the exemption from the inheritance as a bait, they lost the ability to embezzle money in this way, starting with next year…
It didn’t seem to be a special occurrence limited to just this year. Rather, it seemed like they had been embezzling the same percentage for all the time up until now. Seeing the amount pilfered by the village chiefs, I could fully understand why they agreed to the Erwin family’s emergency tax collections with composure. After all, they could easily cover it with the embezzled money, if they Erwin family performed that special tax collection once or twice a year.
They had been toying around with the oni quite a bit when it came to tax collection. But, I won’t allow them to do any of it from now on. Of course, I won’t allow the muscleheads to do their special tax collections either. I plan to properly collect the taxes myself, plan our budget, and balance the accounts.
Since I felt relieved after having finished the big task of collecting the grain taxes from the farm villages, I worked very hard on my wife and her lovers. Mostly in regards to my hips, that is. Thanks to that, I had to use a cane for three days, though.
■
Imperial Calendar, Year 259 – Moon of the Peridot (August)
We safely finished the collection of the tax payment in kind thanks to the cooperation of the village chiefs, but the taxation still remained an issue.
The creation of a 『Basic Taxation Book』 had rapidly gained in importance as something that ought to be completed as quickly as possible. It’d be a book defining the villagers and agricultural land per farm village as well as the annual amount of harvested crops from there.
If we have this, it’ll become possible to make the domestic affairs as peerless as giving a metal rod to an oni, no, giving proteins to a musclehead. As long as a 『Basic Taxation Book』 exists, we should be able to increase the tax yield, now that we purged the village chiefs’ embezzlement through the unification of the measurement system.
However, if a big difference between the tampered tax sum stated by the village chiefs and the tax sum, which we decide upon after doing precise examinations of every field, occurs, it’s possible that the blades of the enraged muscleheads would reap through the village chiefs after finding out that the village chiefs had cheated them all this time.
However, I stand on the side protecting the village chiefs. After all, they’re precious on-site commanders who collect the taxes for us. Yet, the village chiefs would become too spoiled if I only pampered them. Therefore, I plan to go with a basic policy of keeping them down with the stick, just to present them with a tasty carrot at the very end.
With that said, I’ll have Brest, the previous lord, play the role of villain while I will come around as the one pacifying him. We’ll use this good-cop-bad-cop act to get the village chiefs to readily offer us all the documents pertaining to their village so that we can finish the 『Basic Taxation Book』.
As I thought about all this, Brest showed up in my office while pulling an annoyed face.
“Albert, I’m a busy man. I was going to join a military drill from now on.”
“Hoh, the chief retainer Brest-dono is telling me that he doesn’t care about the future of the Erwin family?”
“Ugh! I haven’t said anything like that! It’s just I don’t think you need me to accompany you on a farm village inspection…”
“I see, I see. While being the previous lord, you failed to keep any books about the tax collection, allowed the village chiefs to state the tax yield by themselves, left all the measuring to the village chiefs, and allowed them to enter stuff into the storehouses and vault as they pleased. And now you’re telling me something like that as the perpetrator of this whole mess?”
“But, that was a hereditary method… Even back when my big brother and Malida led the family…”
I thrust a document in front of Brest’s face as he tried to excuse his wrongdoings with him having simply inherited the incapability of generations of family heads when it came to domestic affairs.
“Shut up! Now that I, Albert, have become the governor, I’ll have this managed properly! Are you telling me that the first step in that direction doesn’t matter?”
“Uggghh. No, I haven’t said that,” Brest dejectedly dropped his shoulders while pulling a bitter face.
“In that case, I’m looking forward to your assistance.”
“No choice. Let’s go!”
Taking some retainers along, Brest and I headed to the first farm village in order to negotiate a transfer of the various documents.
■
Sorry, my thinking has been too naive and shallow here. I apparently misjudged the wildness and violence of our local muscleheads.
“HEEEEEEEEYYYY! BRING OUT THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THIS VILLAGE, YOU WORMS!! We got a little something to ask of him! Hurry up and come out, will you!?”
I regretted that I had allowed this muscle-headed chief retainer to enter the farm village as vanguard. He roared around like a gangster who had charged into a restaurant, demanding protection money.
At once the villagers ran away into their houses, completely scared.
You got it totally wrong. That’s not why we’re here. We just came here for peaceful negotiations――
Wondering what might have happened, the village chief rushed over.
“B-Brest-sama! What might be the matter? Do you have some business with our village? We already paid the amount of taxes allocated to us for this year.”
The village chief’s face was ghastly pale due to the unforeseen visit of 『Crimson Spear Oni』 Brest, who possessed as much military might as 『Bloody Oni』 Malida.
“HAAAH? Is it bad for me to patrol the villages?”
“P-Patrol, you say? You’re doing it?
“Obviously! Got a problem with it!?”
“Absolutely not!”
Overwhelmed by Brest’s pressure, the village chief answered while trembling furiously.
“Ah, I remembered there was some business I’ve got with you. According to the stories I heard, this village has harvested quite a lot of crops. I decided to perform a special tax collection over here. You surely won’t oppose that, will you? No, wait. Go ahead and do it! COME OOOONN! Give it your best shot!”
The village chief fell down on the ground, scared by Brest’s words, which sounded like those of a bandit leader, and force which suggested he was about to loot the whole place.
“H-Hiii, I-I haven’t thought anything l-like that. I shall prepare the tribute right away, so I beg you, please spare my life… Hiii.”
Rough. Way too rough. Your manner of handling this is much too violent, Brest.
Thanks to this, the village chief is completely frightened now. It’s the outcome of me having underestimated the muscleheads. I thought it might finish with a shakedown, and yet we reached the level of pillaging.
Goddammit, this is why meatheads are such a pain to deal with…
“Good, good, that’s the right attitude to have. I like honest folks. But, I hate those tricking me, you see? I always start feeling like smashing the head of such dishonest bastards. You understand that feeling, don’t you?
I don’t wanna understand it. Or rather, Brest putting his thick arm around the village chief’s neck is bad, isn’t it? Careful. You gotta proceed carefully there.
“T-Tricking you, Brest-sama…? I-I-I’d never d-do anything s-s-so outrageous.”
Village chief, your legs are shaking like mad. Man, it looks like you’re hiding a lot.
“I see! I see! You’re a good guy, right? I’ll remember you!”
“Hiiiiiii! No way! Please forget all about someone as insignificant as me.”
Ah, a pool has formed at his feet. He pissed himself, huh? I’d say this makes it clear that he’s doing questionable stuff.
Since the village chief is apparently going to die from shock soon if I don’t help him out, I suppose I’ll join the fray.
“Brest-dono, could you please leave the teasing of the poor village chief at this level.”
“A-Albert-dono! Just what is this about!? We were told that there would be no special tax collection this year during the measurement at the castle, right!?”
Knowing that someone who could be talked with had shown up, the village chief sent me a pleading look.
“Certainly I did promise you that there would be no special tax collection, but…as a matter of fact, Brest-dono, the previous lord, got very interested in the 『Basic Taxation Book』 we’ve been creating with all our effort. He got all excited, asking me what would be necessary to complete it… As far as I’m concerned, I tried to detain him, telling him to not harass you village chiefs. But, look, I mean…right? Brest-dono is that sort of person…”
The village chief cast a fleeting glance at Brest.
“What? Something wrong with my face?”
The smirking face was literally befitting an oni 1. If I ran into this sort of face in the darkness, I’d definitely flop down out of fear then and there.
“Hiiiiiii, i-i-it’s nothing. Egh, eegh! Albert-dono…please help me. I implore you, so pleaaase. I don’t want to dieeee!”
A grown man, who’s lived for many years, is wailing loudly. Well, I can fully understand his feelings since his life is on the line. I’d also cry loudly if I were in his shoes.
The thought that your life is in the grasp of a muscle-headed oni probably doesn’t feel overly reassuring in regards to survival.
“Now, now, there is no need for you to become so frightened, my friend. I’d like you to assist us with the special tax collection and afterwards we can discuss further matters in a separate room.”
“T-That’s fine! Very fiiiiiineee!”
“Very well, then let us quickly get started on the tax collection. Also, please hand over the ledger you have locked away.”
“Eh!? The ledgers!?”
“Indeed. Brest-sama’s face has been telling me to decide the sum to be levied from the ledgers.”
“Is there any problem with you bringing out the ledgers? Tell me! Are you trying to hide something? HAAAAH?”
“Hiiighh! I’ll bring them! I will! Just spare my life, pleeease!”
Once I made sure that the village chief had sunk to the floor after being released from Brest’s arm, I started the investigation of the farm village under the pretext of doing a special tax collection. The ledgers have been drawn up in many villages for the sake of allowing the heir to take over as next village chief.
After all, the next village chief would be in trouble if he didn’t know anything about the village’s state. Thus the inheriting son would do his job as new village chief while grasping the village state through the ledgers.
The village chiefs have been running their land much better than the Erwin family.
This time I’m going to have him offer those ledgers ‘voluntarily’ in order to use them for managing the Erwin family’s land.
“T-These are the ledgers of our village. Please spare my life with this!”
The village chief had gone back to his home to fetch the ledger and sprinted back afterwards. Now he was prostrating himself in front of me, his forehead pressed against the ground.
“It’s alright. Even Brest-sama wouldn’t slay someone who voluntarily offered his account books for the sake of allowing the special tax collection to proceed smoothly.”
I flipped through the books I received while soothing the scared village chief. I thought they’d keep account, but I hadn’t expected them to be so precise with their documentation. The books were filled with all sorts of data such as the total number of villagers, the identities of the farmland owners and the size of their fields, the planting situation, the number of cattle, a ranking of the farmland yield, and even the anticipated harvest.
The village chiefs seem to make their tax statements after looking at extremely well-kept account books like these here. But, they deduct quite a sizable amount from what they report afterwards.
While looking at my crib sheet, I continued confirming the village’s fields and population and made sure whether the ledgers contained any errors.
But I gotta admit, this makes things so much easier. I thought I’d have to do a land survey to get the necessary details, but I can rely on previous documentation. Yep, it’s quite simple. The village chief is a seriously capable guy.
With this much information, the Basic Taxation Book drawn up by Milevis is going to make big progress.
The investigation of the village by me proceeded and each time a result different from what the village chief had stated was reported, the number of blue veins on Brest’s forehead increased. Standing next to him, the village chief constantly looked like he was about to faint with his ghastly pale face.
In the evening, the audit of the whole village finished after taking a whole day. I could confirm that the village chief’s ledgers were mostly correct. Based on them, I judged that we could expect twice the tax revenue from this village.
Yep, this means they’ve been leading the Erwin family around by the nose to a staggering degree. Moreover, there’s also the part of the village chief having falsified the grain taxes by measuring them himself. It’s predictable that all the other village chiefs, and not just this one here, have been doing the same.
All of them are pretty shrewd and strong-willed.
Once again I could confirm that the Erwin family with its influential retainers, who had amassed the riches, scattered all over the barony could only maintain its rule thanks to generations of brutal family heads. Any normal lord without this overwhelming combat force would have already been replaced after being overthrown by a revolution.
Nice, muscle-heads. This is about the only time I feel like I should thank you for being a clan full of hot-blooded idiots.
But, if we leave the village chiefs alone with their hoarded assets, it won’t be said that future generations will be able to restrain them. If we don’t chip away their power slowly, it’ll be us who will get killed in our sleep.
Yet, if we proceed towards extracting taxes forcibly to shave off their power, the village chiefs’ discontent will blow up. That in itself would be a problem as well. Therefore, I called the village chief, who had become completely drained after being constantly exposed to Brest’s aura of fury, to another room.
“A-Albert-dono! P-Please do something so that Brest-dono’s anger somehow abates! At this rate, I…”
As soon as we entered the separate room, the village chief prostrated himself in front of me. It seems he was frightened that he would have his head chopped off and displayed on the village square, if things went on like this. As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t be all that strange for this to happen, seeing how much he filled his own pockets by falsifying the amount of taxes due.
“Now, now, no need to get so scared. Brest-dono is someone you can talk to, even if his appearance may suggest otherwise.”
“Impossible! Impossible! Noooo way! His face tells me that he’s definitely going to kill me. Please. I will do anything, so please make him spare my life at least,” the village chief appealed to me frantically.
Well, Brest certainly evolved into a 『I’ll-definitely-butcher-anyone-who-fucking-lied-to-me-man』 after he understood that the village chief tricked him. The thinking of oni is pretty simple. They only differentiate between 『enemies』 and 『allies』.
The village chief, who cheated him, was labeled as 『enemy』 by Brest. At this rate, it was just a question of time until the village chief would lose his head. Therefore I decided to offer the frightened village chief conditions for his life to be spared.
“To calm Brest-don’s rage…he probably won’t be able to agree if you don’t promise to properly pay the taxes, as they’ve been calculated in the ledger you handed me, in the next year. Let’s see, if I remember correctly, it’s twice the amount you paid as tax this year?”
“T-That’s unreasonable! If we pay twice the amount in taxes, the village’s reserves will be all gone!”
Making the village chief raise his face, I declared with a broad grin, “Ah, you don’t need to worry about that. Going by my calculations, this village should have more than enough leeway, even after paying twice the taxes. It’s okay. It’ll work out. Believe me. Besides, during times of crop failures, I, as governor of the Erwin family, will take responsibility and provide you with food supplies. Look, isn’t that a cheap price to pay, if you get to keep your life?”
“Hii, you demon! Devil! Brute! You’re just taking advantage of me!”
“Oh? Would you prefer to experience Brest-dono’s anger with your body and have your head put up on display then?”
I gently tapped the village chief’s neck with my hand.
“Higghh! NOOOO!”
“Then you do understand what you must do, don’t you?”
“Aaaaaaahh, damn it! Take it all, you thief!”
The village chief went along with my conditions and immediately crumbled to the floor. But, since leaving him like that would only raise rebellious thoughts in him, I gave him a tasty carrot to chew on.
“I’m happy to receive such a nice reply from you, but as might be expected, this would spell a total loss for you. As far as I’m concerned I’m having you village chiefs help me with the tax collection and I’m grateful for all your efforts. That’s why I’d like to offer you, who will have his taxes doubled, a new privilege.”
“Eh? A new privilege?” The village chief reacted to the word 『privilege』 as he sat on the ground, crying.
“Indeed. Since it will likely inconvenience you in various ways if the crop taxes double, I will get permission from the lord to waive the Service facility fee in the village where you’re collecting the taxes for us so that this fee can be directly paid to you. Think of it as saving my face and please accept the tax raise in exchange for this.”
“Eh? EHH? You say we won’t need to pay the Service facility fee?”
A weak smile returned to the village chief’s face. Just when he thought that huge taxes would be demanded, he was told that he’d be able to pocket a part of those with the official permission of the lord.
“It’s the least I can do for you whom I constantly ask for big favors. It’s gratitude and that’s paid in money in this world.”
I put an arm around the shoulder of the sitting village chief and revealed an evil smile.
“O-Oh my god! Albert-dono! What a wonderful person you are! Not only did you worry about sparing my life, but you even care about my finances…!”
Knowing that his life would be spared on top of getting a part of the deprived taxes back, the village chief rejoiced. Money rules the world. For real.
But, even if I say that, it doesn’t really hurt our finances while being a lavish treat for village chiefs. Given that the crop taxes will increase by double at the least, once we get the Basic Taxation Book sorted, it’ll result in an enormous inflow of additional money, even if it’s reduced by the amount of taxes the Service facility fee would have produced. Moreover, if we transfer the Service facility fee to the village chiefs, the villagers’ discontent over having to pay it won’t be directed at the Erwin family.
Because we’re officially going to inform the fief’s population about the transfer of the Service facility fee to the village chiefs as part of our tax reform, all complaints will shift to the village chiefs. The aim behind this measure is also to outsource the function as breakwater for the villagers, who are unhappy with the Erwin family’s heavy taxation, to the village chiefs.
If the mood in the villages turns sour because the Service facility fee increases after it starts to be directly paid to the village chiefs, the village chiefs will be in mortal danger if they don’t lower the amount of money levied as Service facility fee. Once that happens, the village chiefs’ income will drop as well. Moreover, they won’t have any grounds to complain to the Erwin family because they decided it on their own accord.
I have all right to praise myself as the transfer of the Service facility fee is a plan of killing two birds with one stone as it’ll also shave off the village chiefs’ assets.
“If you are so deeply moved by this, there is worth in me having exerted all my effort to appeal to the lord. I have one more request to you, village chief-dono――”
“Yes, anything you ask, Albert-dono!”
The village chief’s attitude made a full turn after sparing his life and giving him a new source of income.
“We would like to do the same investigation we did in this village in other villages as well, but I was hoping you could persuade the other village chiefs. Currently I can offer them the same conditions as I have offered you. It’s scheduled for the Erwin family to enforce the investigation for all the villages which turn it down. I would like you to warn them that we will take the liberty to be very thorough in those places where we have to force our hand. How about it? Could you do this for me?”
I pushed forward my scheme of bringing over the other village chiefs to my side as well by using a village chief I already won for our side. If a comrade, who has been carrying out the same duty as them, talks about the merits to persuade them, things should proceed faster than us going over there to threaten them into submission.
“What did you say!? The village chiefs of all villages…?”
“Yes, I believe this to be a job only you can do… Oh, right. We’re going to increase the number of servants at the Erwin family very soon again. I think I could arrange something for your eldest and second-eldest son. If they are employed as civil officials, I will be able to promote them at my own discretion. If you go along with my request, I will prepare such a preferential framework for your family. If I, the governor, manage to increase my authority even further, your sons will make a career as civil officials and it might become possible for them to receive new land. What do you think? Can you do this for me?”
The ones who have been employed as civil officials so far were the third sons and younger who were still living at home, but I also plan to win over the eldest and second-eldest sons, who have remained here as candidates for succeeding the village chief seat.
Because it costs money to build new farm villages, even for rich village chiefs, I showed the village chief a way to make a career by making him offer his sons as retainers of the Erwin family.
“If you gain even more power, it will become possible for humans to be awarded with land in the Erwin family…is what you’re saying?”
“Yes, that’s the gist of it. The bigger the Erwin family becomes, the more retainers we will need, and we won’t have any choice but to grant land to capable retainers. You should know that I’m in a position where I can push Malida-sama in that direction.”
The village chief pondered for a short while, but then stood up and clasped my hand tightly.
“I will do it! Please allow me to handle everything!”
After listening to what I had to say, the village chief got super hyped. The endorsement to employ his sons as retainers was in reality a substitute for taking hostages, but the village chief became strangely excited after reviving from the dead, being in high spirits.
“Maaan, that’s a huge help. The ones I should obviously rely on are you village chiefs. Please take good care of it.”
What I need the most are cooperative village chiefs. That’s the biggest obstacle for the Erwin family to run its domestic affairs decently.
The 『Draft of a Basic Taxation Book』 continued to advance in an extremely friendly atmosphere as the persuaded, cooperative village chiefs would offer their village’s ledgers in succession. Brest, who learned about them embezzling taxes on a grand scale, flew into rage, but I cut him off by telling him that it was his own fault for not having done his job as lord properly, and redirected his remaining fury into other tasks.
The village chiefs’ campaign of voluntarily offering their village’s ledgers resulted in Milevis and my domestic affairs team pouring all their effort into quickly drawing up the Basic Taxation Book for Farm Villages. Milevis reported to me that he’d be able to provide a fairly accurate earnings balance sheet at the end of the year, meaning there was only a little time left until the very first accurate tax balance sheet since the Erwin family came to this land would become reality.
In addition, the population of the farm villages has been mostly counted, as well. We have twenty farm villages with 10,960 people. The average number of people per village was 548.
The number of serf soldiers that could be mobilized capped out at 2,100 people. The number of serf soldiers was limited by them having to be in the proper age bracket to endure combat activities. Moreover, we deducted the minimum number of people who would be absolutely necessary to keep the farm village running because it wasn’t as though new farmers would be growing out of the ground. Otherwise, a farm village would disappear after losing its labor force through a crushing defeat on the battlefield, seeing how men in their prime, who usually were the breadwinners, would be drafted for war. And if the farm villages disappeared, money and food would stop flowing to the Erwin family as well, making it impossible to maintain the castle.
Serf soldiers are support troops. If possible, it’s best to mobilize them as the very last measure. Personally, I plan to increase the number of retainers, aka career soldiers, even if this ends up driving the personnel costs.
However, they will idle around during peace times as they only specialize in combat. For the sake of earning enough money to pay those idlers, I’d like to reserve the mobilization of serf soldiers as a last resort.
While thinking all this, I scanned the document with the population numbers of Ashley Barony. Combining the farm village population with the 5236 people in the castle town, which we counted through a census the other day, the total population of the fief amounts to 16,196 people.
That’s a considerable amount of people, but our territory still has many plains which can’t be farmed because of a lack of manpower. As far as I can tell, the Erwin fief with its land size, water supply, trade activity, and plain ground can easily support around 50,000 people, if we put a serious effort into our domestic affairs.
△ △ △
※ Orgus’s Point of View ※
“Your Highness, the dispatch of the royal army has been approved.”
My guardian, Prime Minister Zazan, received approval for the large-scale invasion into the Elancia Empire after working on it for several moons.
“Finally, huh? It’s taken many moons just to mobilize 5,000 soldiers.”
“After all, the resistance by the lords of the Satzbalm, who have become impoverished due to the constant wars, was quite fierce…”
“Those bloody cowards! Well, whatever. If we recapture Sura, Zaysan, and Benia, which Elancia stole from us, the king should be delighted as well.”
“Yes, Your Highness! We would be deeply honored if Your Highness could come to Tiana and take command of the army as supreme commander,” Prime Minister Zazan pleaded while bowing his head.
The instant I heard those words, I couldn’t hold back my anger.
“What kind of nonsense are you talking about!? I will leave the command of the invasion force to Lord Bedouin, and you will manage the situation in Tiana as my representative! I won’t participate in something like war!”
Why would someone of noble descent like me have to get close to a battlefield that stinks of blood and dirt? If you’re my guardian, use your brain so that I don’t have to do something like that.
Each and every single one of them is totally useless!
“Your Highness, in such a case, there was no meaning for you to become the suprem――”
“Be quiet! Don’t talk back to me, the supreme commander! I’ll review your reports and issue my orders from the capital! Got it!?”
Prime Minister Zazan looked like he still had something to say, but he held his tongue, lowered his head, and left my room.
“If not for that letter by that blasted priest, I wouldn’t have needed to do something so annoying! Fuck!”
But all of it will be over in around a month. Once we retake Sura, Zaysan, and Benia, everything I did will be written off, and my position as crown successor will be set in stone. And then I must get rid of Goran, who embarrassed me so much. So that he won’t ever threaten my position again!
Afterwards, I’ll determine the whereabouts of Priest Albert, who disappeared after being kidnapped by the Erwin Mercenary Band, and kill him. Be it nobles or commoners, I’ll make sure that all those who mock me regret this with their lives.
“I sure look forward to the day when I come back to the court after garnering military achievements with the invasion,” I chuckled as I lowered my eyes on the map that showed the invasion plan I had drawn up myself.
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